In language learning machines, a spoken phrase or voice sequence is first played, which is a single word or a whole sentence, for example. The person who is learning then repeats this played spoken phrase, which is received by the learning appliance through a microphone and is recorded. By alternately playing back the original spoken phrase and the repeated spoken phrase, the person who is learning can check whether he has repeated the spoken phrase correctly.
Currently, analog learning appliances are used, in which the spoken phrases are stored on analog cassettes. To this end, the analog learning appliances have cassette drives for inserting the analog cassettes. The cassette drive required for inserting the analog cassettes means that such analog learning appliances cannot be miniaturized as desired. In addition, the drive mechanism of the cassette drive requires a large amount of power, which means that inserted batteries do not last very long, i.e. their standby time is considerably shortened. In addition, the cassette drive is subject to mechanical wear phenomena, which means that the analog learning appliances are prone to needing repair, or losses of quality arise.
By contrast, digital learning appliances afford the advantage that the spoken phrases are stored in digital memories, which means that no drive is required for inserting analog cassettes. Accordingly, inserted batteries last longer, the appliances are less prone to needing repair, and the quality of the spoken phrases is constant, since there are no mechanical parts which are subject to wear. To date, a great many analog learning cassettes for a wide variety of foreign languages have been recorded for analog learning appliances. Many customers already possess an extensive collection of analog learning cassettes with a wide variety of contents. To be able to render the contents of the already recorded analog learning cassettes useful for the digital learning appliances, the content of the analog learning cassettes needs to be recorded digitally by the digital learning appliance.